Page 11 of Unfinished

She couldn’t quite figure out what he was wearing. It looked like a knee-length skirt combined with an open, sleeveless robe. The entire ensemble was cut from blood red velvet, or a fabric that looked similar enough to pass for it. It made her want to reach out and touch, to slide the edge of his robe between her fingertips.

He was looking up at an alien child who was perched on top of a tall piece of furniture, and although Sienna couldn’t be certain, she had the feeling it was a little girl. She hadn’t researched the Xithilene thoroughly enough to easily identify the differences in their children’s genders. She barely knew anything about their kids, but she’d need to learn, wouldn’t she? If she decided to take this seriously, she had a lot of work to do.

“Those tiny wings are the cutest! Do you think she flew up there? Can they fly?” Tasha’s nails clicked against her viewscreen, and Sienna batted her hand away, but she was too engrossed in looking at the image to bother with more of a reprimand.

“It looks like it—I think he’s trying to help her down. He’s got his arms out to catch her. I’m going to see what his message says.”

“What’s his name?”

“R’kash of Ith’ss, High Priest of Evathi, although I doubt I pronounced that mouthful correctly,” said Sienna after she read the name listed at the top of his information page.

“It’d be pretty funny if he made you say that whole thing every time you wanted to talk to him,” Tasha said with a cackle.

Sienna’s lips turned up in a slight smile, but she was focused on scanning R’kash’s personal details. She assumed that whoever had put the Mate Portal Program together would’ve converted the ages if the length of their years was different between planets. According to the little box with R’kash’s basic info, he was thirty-eight, a resident of the Northern Continent, was looking for a woman who wanted to relocate to Xithilene, and he had one two-year-old daughter.

“She’s his. It says right here.” Sienna pointed at the info-box. Tasha made a clicking noise with her mouth.

“Look, I know it seems tempting to go for the guy with the ready-made family, but before you get too excited, maybe you should find out where Mrs. High Priest of the Silver Mountain ran off to. You have no idea what raising children there is like. They’re not just scaly humans—Xithilene are aliens. I’m not telling you not to have a little fun with this, but don’t rule out all of our Earth men just yet, okay?”

“I’m not. Like I said before, I’m just exploring an option.” Sienna swiped to shut down her viewsceen.

“Hey! You don’t want to look anymore?”

“Maybe later. Our food is getting cold,” replied Sienna. “Thanks again for coming over. I appreciate it—you’re always there for me.”

“Of course!”

“Enough about me. Tell me about what’s going on with you. Anything interesting happening at work?”

Sienna served herself some coconut curry and listened to her friend describe the antics of the latest new hire she’d had to train. She truly was grateful for Tasha’s support, but she couldn’t help that her fingers itched to reactivate her viewscreen. She’d only gotten a little taste. Tasha might be right—acting as a stepmother to an alien toddler was probably a terrible idea, but she couldn’t get that image out of her head. A tall, dignified man smiling up at that child like she was his whole world. It was a heady kind of temptation.

When Tasha finally left, the first thing Sienna did was pull up the message from R’kash. Reading it left her smiling and determined to write back. She enlarged his image and took a moment to look at the warmth in his orange-red eyes. They glowed, just like embers. Sienna sighed. She was going to give this a real try. That meant six months to learn about a near stranger. Six months to decide whether she was truly willing to leave this life behind. It was June 10th. She could be spending Christmas on Xithilene if it was meant to be.

A whole new life. She pressed her forehead against her palm and huffed out a laugh. She could barely believe it.

Lady Sienna,

I am R’kash of Ith’ss, one of our Lady’s high priests. My temple, Evathi, is beautiful and located in the far northern area of our planet. We cultivate sacred crops for our people and of course lead prayer ceremonies and rituals. You may have noticed my daughter in my image. Veesha has only recently arrived to live at the temple. Her mother hadn’t informed me of her birth, and although I wish that I could’ve learned of her existence before L’eesha’s untimely death, I am grateful to have her in my life now.

You wrote that you love children and want a family. I can’t promise you additional children—our scientists can’t guarantee cross-species fertility between all humans and Xithilene—but Veesha will always be part of my life, and if you were to become my mate, she would be part of yours.

Please tell me about your life on Earth. You indicated that you’d be willing to live on Xithilene. Do you believe it’d be possible for you to be happy in a remote area like Evathi? I will not lie to you. We are far from any of the major cities. Although the temple has one flyer, I would not be able to travel often due to my responsibilities to our people. If you would like, I can send you more images of our land and the temple. Your personal description was brief. I’d love to learn more about you. I hope you will consider responding to my message.

May you be bountifully blessed, most beautiful daughter of the Lady,

R’kash

7

Sienna was balancedon one foot, her chest pressed against the railing, as she leaned forward to get the perfect shot of the lighthouse from the lookout point.

“Watch out. I don’t think you should be putting your full weight on that,” Theo said with a grimace as he gave the old guardrail a shake. Sienna’s body tensed at the sound of metal clanging over the brisk breeze.She set her left foot down and shifted her weight backwards.

“Got it,” she said with a lift of her recording device. “Next time, warn me about the unstable railing before I lean on it, okay?” Sienna grinned up at her brother. “I’m not going to ask if you’re dating anyone, since I’m sure mom already has, but if you ever want to talk about anything, I’m here.”

“Good. I appreciate the offer, but I don’t kiss and tell. What about you? Have you seen anyone since Edgar? Don’t worry—I won’t report back if you are. I just think you should live a little. Enjoy yourself. The summer here is short enough that you should have fun while it lasts.”

It was mid-July, a little over a month since Sienna had started writing to R’kash. She’d given other men’s profiles and messages some cursory glances during that first week, but no one had caught her attention the way R’kash had. The lighthouse images were for him. Just another piece of her world she could share. She liked to send him something interesting along with each written message.

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